Wiebe, Anna Gertrude Claassen (1878-1971)

Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 1971 Nov 4 p. 15

Birth date: 1878 Jul 29
Death date: 1971 Sep 18

text of obituary:

Tribute to A Pioneer Mother

Her Life Spanned Generations By Hilda w. Krahn

ONE ALWAYS stands in awe and wonder in the face of death. This is the case when a young life ends before its course seems to have been fulfilled. It is also the case when a life spans generations and continents.

Our mother and grandmother, Anna Gertrude Wiebe, aged 93, passed away in Beatrice, Neb. on Sept. 18. Born near Marienburg, Germany, she was one of the few surviving persons of the Beatrice Mennonite community who was transplanted from a faraway country to a wilderness to be tamed and subdued. She joined in marriage a partner, Gerhard A. Wiebe from Samara on the Volga River. Together with others, they made their contribution in helping to build a Christian community.

Our parents lived in a very interesting span of time. Most of the farm and household items we see in museums are items they used to make a living. Mother died in the space age, even learning to enjoy trips by airplane, but in her early life she was indeed a pioneer.

OUR PARENTS taught us many things that we could never have learned in formal schooling. In our home most of the field work and heavy chores were done by our father and brothers, but it was mother who taught us how to plant seeds and seedlings, and how to go out at night by kerosene lantern light to carry setting hens, covered by gunny sacks, to nests of eggs for brooding.

Father and the boys did the big coarse work of butchering, while mother showed us woman's role in connection with providing the year's supply of meat. When the men had reduced the carcasses to manageable pieces, we took over. After the stone jars and glass jars had been properly filled with their respective meaty contents, and the hams treated for curing, came the cooking of the last scraps for chicken feed and finally the soap making.

To be sure, we erred from time to time, like when we ground up the tenderloin for sausage. But no supper ever tasted better than the gooseberry "Mus," fried potatoes and fresh hot spareribs taken directly from the large iron cauldron in which the lard had been rendered on the first day of butchering.

MOTHER TAUGHT US how to make butter, cottage cheese and "Zwerg," and a family of nine, usually plus a hired hand, could consume these foods in large quantity. Mother saw to it that each of us learned how to bake bread and it was a necessary part of the procedure to set the yeast batter in the evening in those days. For a time mother herself baked a batch of six loaves of bread every other day in our corn cob or wood heated over.

There were five girls to sew for and mother somehow inspired us to learn to sew. I can remember only one dress that she herself made, but she was frequently mending, especially overalls.

Mother often said, "Seid gastfrei ohne Murren," and taught us the pleasures of hospitality. She always welcomed the many guests we children brought home.

MEMORIZATION was an integral part of school work when mother went to school and a rich store of memorized material remained in her possession throughout her life. Mother taught us all the Bible verses and songs we were required to learn for Sunday school in order to get little picture card, from memory, as we worked together, having learned them thoroughly herself as a child. When one of us wanted a copy of Goethe's "Der Erikoenig" mother simple took paper and pencil and wrote the entire poem from memory. This spring, on the way to a silver wedding celebration, mother recited a long poem which, as a 16-year-old girl, she had first memorized for her uncle's silver wedding. Some years ago she had recited the same poem for the silver weddings of some of her children.

The birth of one of mother's children possibly illustrated how some of her life events took place. It was Saturday two weeks before Christmas. She cooked a meal for corn-shellers at noon, then took the horse and wagon to drive her four older children to church for the Sunday school Christmas program practice, stopping in town on the way home to pick up a couple of sacks of feed. Early next morning the baby was born, almost before the doctor could get there. A doctor always had to be fetched with horse and buggy, since telephones were not yet common.

AT THE TENDER AGE of three our mother took the longest trip of her life which was from Marienburg, West Prussia, to Beatrice, Neb., where she settled on a farm with her parents Johann and Gertrude Toevs Claassen. There were enough other German settlers in the area that school was conducted in German by "Lehrer" Penner in a building near the church. Mother did have one day of English schooling when that became available, but only one day. At that point her mother decided that her oldest daughter, then age 12, and the third oldest child of a family of eight children, was indispensable at home and had to assist full time with the family work. Her help was especially needed since her father died of an accident three years after the family settled at Beatrice.

Our pioneer ancestors loved music and many families provided themselves with reed organs. Our reed organ was soon replaced by a piano and we spent many happy hours playing and singing together. There were also many summer evenings when mother sat outside with us and taught us songs like "Weisst do wieviel Sternlein Stehen," "Guter Mond du gehst so stille," and "Weil ich Jesu Schaeflein bin." Some of these same songs she sang again outside at twilight hardly a month ago.

DURING mother's lifetime many changes took place in the church which had been patterned after the Heubuden Mennonite Church they had left behind in West Prussia. It was a large rectangular edifice with the high pulpit in the middle of a long side. The pulpit was flanked on each side by a row of raised seats, on the left for the ministers and on the right for the "Vorsaenger" (whom we children naughtily dubbed the "Nachsaenger").

The church had three entrances, one for men, one for women, and one for ministers. It seems the ministers had a short meeting every Sunday morning while the congregation sang a number of hymns. Each Sunday, at a certain pre-determined cue, the singing came to an abrupt halt and the Elder stepped into the sanctuary proclaiming in loud sonorous tones, "Der Friede des Herrn sei mit Euch." He led the procession of ministers to their places while the singing led by Vorsaenger and reed organ continued.

MOTHER'S LIFE spanned generations. Not every lifespan is that long, but there are still a number of pioneers in our midst who settled in the prairie states around 1880. They provide us with bridges to the past. Bold pioneers of our day must provide bridges to the future.

The Mennonite obituary: 1971 Oct 5 p. 590